The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1887-09-04
OUR LUMBER SUPPLY.
A Great and Growing Source Of Local
Wealth.

l -
Wealth.
No feature of Oregon's industrial pro-
gress, says the Oregontdn of the 3rd,
during the past two years has been so i'm
portant as the development of a market
in the Eastern states for our lumber.
Until now there has been no market IN
which Oregon manufacturers have had a
fair chance. There have been In fact
but two department in the lumber trade
the domestic trade in California and the
foreign trade in the islands, China and
South America-and these have been held
firmly in hand by San Francisco capital
lists who control the great mills at Puget
sound and on the southern coast. Our
lumbermen have been able to sell IN con-
siderable quantities to these markets but
always under sufferance and In almost
every instance through the agency of the
great lumber magnates. When they have
attempted to compete in San Francisco
they have been made to feel the hard
hand and usually have found their ven
lures unproftable. In the foreign trade
they have not been able to do anything
to speak of. Portland merchants have
no connections with the islands, China or
the South American countries The COM
mercial relations of these places are with
San Francisco and the trade in lumber
like trade in other forms has been re-
ciprocal. The San Francisco people,
with their immense lumber resources,
have been able to hold the foreign busi-
ness absolutely. And further, they have
not scrupled to injure the reputation of
Columbia river lumber (by this name the
product of all the mills from Astoria to
Portland is classed) even while making
use of il under the name of Puget sound
lumber. The new trade with the east, on
the other hand, began with us and is
wholly our own; and through advantages
of situation we will be able to hold il
against competition.
The earliest experimental shipment of
lumber to the Eastern market was made
something less than three years ago. 1t
was found profitable, and regular ship
ments began in August, 1886. From that
time till January L, 1886, 100000 feet
were shipped. In 1886 one Portland mill
ing company dispatched 18,0O0, 600 feet,
and two other mills as much more. Dur
ing the current year one mill has shipped
its entire product for eight months
26,0O0,000 feet-and other mills have sent
20,O00,O00 feet. The business has grown
steadily, each month showing an advance
over the month preceding. During Au-
gust upwards of 100000 feet were
shipped, and il is believed that by next
spring shipments will aggregate 10,O00,-
900 feet per month. This rapid develop
ment is not the result of "boom" effort,
but has been in response to legitimate
demands.
The market is observation-disclosures,
Salt Lake, Omaha and on as far east as
Chicago. Railroads east of the Missis-
sippi river have begun to use Oregon
lumber and il is coming to be known in
the building trade. For framing and
other work requiring strength it is with
out equal in the light lumbers of the
East. The greater number of Eastern
orders are for heavy timbers, and it goes
for the most part in this form.
The future of this business is assured
not less by the merits of our lumber and
the favor with which it has been received
than by the decline in the Eastern timber
supply. The pine lands of the Northern
states are not vet exhausted, but a point
has been reached from where the end is
seen. The supply is yisibly short" 1t
is this that has advanced prices to a
figure which enables our lumbermen to
compete. There is no other source avail
able, and the demand must continue and
grow.
1t is not least among the advantages TO
follow the o. II. d N. lease to the Union
Pacific. that it gives the latter road ac-
cess to our timber. Here, alone, this
system of many thousand miles pene-
trates forest country. The timber con-
sumption of the Union Pacific alone is
very great, sufficient to employ several
mills, while that of the country into
which il must introduce and carry our
timber is beyond estimate.
Already, the Eastern demand has put
new life into lumber manufacture and 10
general industry on the Columbia river.
There is not an idle mill, and the capacity
of several of the old establishments has
been increased. In one Portland mill,
which works exclusively upon Eastern
orders, the saws are in motion night and
day. Persons not familiar with the
lower Columbia country, its business and
industries, cannot appreciate the import
ance of this activity TO large body OF
our population. The lumber industry is
the wheel which sets all other wheels in
motion. The money paid for logs goes
through the hands of the logger to the
owner of the timber, the workmen in the
camps, the boatmen in the river, the
breeders of oxen, the producers of feed
and provisions,-in short its benefits
reach every interest in the river commu'
nifty. Where times have been dull during
the long depression of the lumber trade
they are now active.
If ''inexhaustible" were not a term un,
known to the lexicon of this age, We
should apply it to the timber supply oi
the Columbia river. The quantity oi
timber, near and remote, available fol
lumber, is simply prodigious. There art
billions upon billions of feet, equal to the
best product of any other country, ready
Whenever it may be wanted. Certainly
90 far as the present generation is con
cerned, the supply is inexhaustible, assur
ing the continuance of a great industry
which must soon grow to be greater.